Three persons were arrested on Friday for allegedly cheating a 48-year-old Irish woman out of close to Rs 2 lakh in an online fraud.
The alert had come to Calcutta police through the Interpol.
Shadab Husain Mullik, 36, was arrested from his apartment at Nator Park in Kasba. Mohammad Firoze, 31, from Beniapukur, was allegedly present in Mullik’s flat when the cyber crime wing of Calcutta police raided it. He was rounded up on charges of being Mullik’s accomplice.
After questioning the two, the police team raided the residence of Farhana Khan, 23, in Elliot Lane, off Park Street, and arrested her.
The police said the case refers to a call that A’ine Hunter of Rodgers Park in Cork — Ireland’s second largest city — received on July 30 last year. Hunter, an accounts professional, received the call from someone who posed as a representative of OTT platform Amazon Prime and said she was due for a refund of Euro 99 since she had unsubscribed.
“The scammer convinced the woman that he needed to have access to her computer systems and accounts,” said an officer of the cyber cell of Calcutta police. “She allowed him access to her system. The scammer took control of her accounts and wired around Euro 2,088, which is around Rs 1,85,000.”
Hunter approached the Irish police and a team visited her residence, collected evidence and recorded her statement. An investigation was started.
On August 13 this year, the Interpol office in Dublin requested its counterpart in Delhi to take up Hunter’s case.
“The Gardai (Irish police) have exhausted all avenues of investigation open to them, and now respectfully request that the matter is accepted for further investigation by your competent police authorities as the recipient to the fund appears to reside in your jurisdiction,” the letter to Interpol Delhi said.
During the investigation, it appeared that the money was transferred to an account with the Ballygunge branch of a private bank. The account was opened in the name of Farhana Khan.
“Relevant gadgets with digital imprints have been seized from the three,” an officer said.